


Quantum Superposition

by Lycoria



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fix-It of Sorts, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lots of space time fuckery, M/M, Older Keith is doing a lot better though, Older!Keith, Older!Shiro, Post S8, Reconciliation, S3 Keith, Sheith Reverse Big Bang 2019, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Planning, Yes there is a threeway, it's the beginning of S3 but at the same time, smut down the line, the sad angsty boi that he is, threeway, too much of it in the first chapter I hope you will forgive me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:20:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21902884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lycoria/pseuds/Lycoria
Summary: “Shiro. I’ve found you.” He gasped out.There couldn’t be anyone else but him, but the man that cradled him in his arms, hands holding him steadily against his chest, seemed somehow more solid than before.“You didn’t find him. You were the one that came here.”There stood before him was himself, somehow older, with a scar on his cheek. Where he had somehow expected, instinctively, hostility from a man that was a mirror image of his likeness, there was only knitted brows in concern.“Keith.”He had never heard his name from his own lips.“How did you get here?” The man now crouched, cradling his face, turning it from side to side. “How did you get back on Earth?”-In which Keith falls, unexpectedly, in the middle of his older self, Shiro, and their wedding plans. Keith just doesn't know it yet.(Older!Keith/Keith/Older!Shiro)For Sheith Reverse Big Bang 2019
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 70
Collections: Sheith Reverse Big Bang 2019





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm back... after what seems like it has been thousands of years. I absolutely did go into hiding... but I am very happy to have been able to collaborate with the fantastic artist, Prosaicwonder, for this Sheith reverse big bang!
> 
> The wonderful premise of the story and the art that you will see embedded throughout the story is theirs: twitter.com/prosaicwonder/status/1208793123167576064?s=20
> 
> There will also be a music mix dedicated to this story, as I have had for a handful of my previous works. That is also in progress and will be linked soon.
> 
> Either way, thank you for joining me once again, and I hope you enjoy.

“So, the suits are ready.” Shiro said, taking a sip of his coffee. His eyes stayed fixed to the datapad in his hand, scanning the digital calendar packed with endless to dos. 

“The… what?” He replied dumbly, his spoon slipping out of his fingers and into his cereal bowl with a splatter. “What for?”

Mornings never agreed with him, his blood running sluggishly in his veins like molasses. It had always been a slow start at the beginning of the day for him, but it seemed like lately his inability to wake up had only gotten worse. 

He peered out of their breakfast nook window, taking in the scenery of endless green grass dotted with tiny white flowers- as if purposely to appear in that exact sort of random that really wasn’t random at all- by a divine artist. Overhead, a brilliant blue sky was filled with fluffy white clouds. It was a perfect, idyllic day. 

It had been months since they had taken leave to prepare. 

Peace had gotten to him, he decided. It was now in his blood. 

And so, he stared blankly at his husband to be, who wore and exasperated, yet loving smile. 

Shiro set the datapad down, taking his hands into his own as if it would help jog his memory. “The shoot today. For our wedding photos.”

“Oh. That.” He said with a heavy, disappointed sigh. “Shiro, do we really have to take these? You know how much I don’t like it… and then the press will get ahold of the pictures and we’ll be all over the news again…” 

He trailed off as Shiro squeezed his hands. He squeezed back in return. 

As if to say,  _ I’m here. _

_ I’m here too. _

“Come on, just a couple photos. I told the photographer to make it quick. She was the one from last year’s send off for the annual Voltron diplomatic mission, remember her? You said you liked her.” 

“I did say that I liked her.” He mumbled under his breath. 

“Okay then?” 

“...Okay.” 

“Appointment’s at 11:30 today.” Shiro took ahold of the datapad again. “I was thinking if we hurry, we could maybe pick up the flowers today instead of tomorrow to spare ourselves the second trip, but maybe they would wilt too much in the car- Why are you laughing?” 

He stopped himself, bringing a hand to his mouth. He hadn’t realized, but he was indeed chuckling, a grin on his lips. “I guess… I guess I find it funny.” 

“What’s funny? The flowers wilting? Maybe we should wait until tomorrow then-” 

“No, no.” He put a hand up, halting Shiro. “It’s just… this is what our biggest concerns are now.” 

His fiance tilted his head, as if a signal that he was waiting for him to continue. 

“We spent so much of our time worrying about the war. Working for the good of the universe. And then after that... all that time it took us to really heal.” He ate a spoonful of cereal, crunching thoughtfully for a moment. “Now I’m sitting here, talking about how I’m stressed about taking  _ photos-  _ It’s not a bad thing. It’s… good, Shiro. We’ve come so far.”

There was a quirk of Shiro’s mouth before he gave out a short laugh of his own. His eyes crinkled, his grey eyes glowing with warmth. 

“You’re right, it is a good thing.” Shiro answered. “And now, we can keep going, keep moving forward together.” 

_ Together. _

He didn’t want to admit, but he feared this, their happiness. Sometimes he woke in the middle of the night, grasping beside him to find him, find Shiro once again. 

But he didn’t have to admit it, because time and time again, Shiro would be there to give him the reassurance he so badly needed, kisses on his forehead, sleepy murmurs with love and patience to quiet his tears.

It was always then, in the dark, as he was lulled to sleep in Shiro’s arms, he would remember the time he spent in a far off place. 

With them. 

As if it was only just a dream.


	2. Uncertainty

Running. 

He’s always running. 

As he moves forward, as fast as he can, but never fast enough, the footpaths of the Altean castleship light up below him, casting a cold, alien blue glow.

Weighty steps, reverberating in his ears. His entire body aches from the effort, as if he could somehow put in enough force to take flight, to lift away from the floor. Instead, he feels his feet grow heavier, cementing against the ground, pulling him further down. 

Never fast enough.

Behind him, his teammates trail after like ghosts, echoing the same anxiety that pounded in his veins with each footfall.

The dread is something he’s used to, a deep, churning sensation in his gut that never leaves. It’s the shock and panic, following quickly after, that feels sharp and sudden, like a knife in his back, sliding down his spine. 

Then he arrives, but he’ll always be too late. He’ll peer into the empty husk that is the Black Lion, feel that fear once again become reality.

The ground will finally succeed then, and like a puppet with its strings cut, he’ll collapse against the empty seat, scrabbling against the pilot chair. He’ll cry out his name, over and over. Futile, until the apparitions of the surviving paladins pull at him, pull him up, and take him far away.

Nothing else feels real.

But with Shiro’s absence, the emptiness is so stark that even now, he can feel it like a great weight, pressing on him and holding him down, down, down… 

That is always when Keith wakes. Chest heaving, face twisted with tears unshed. He’ll gasp in a breath, like coming up from under the water’s surface. 

He’ll wonder where he is, briefly, until his eyes adjust to the teal horizon blooming from the cockpit window. 

The sunrises on Oaises are different from Earth. 

That’s the first thought that comes to mind every morning, once he’s understood his surroundings. He’ll watch for a moment as the red dwarf star that the planet orbits around rises overhead.

Something about the sunlight would then ignite the dawning sky into infinite hues of blues and greens, casting everything on the planet’s rocky surface in an indigo tint. It was strange and unfamiliar to Keith, but so were the drifting clouds of some unknown pink substance, heavy with flowering foliage like floating gardens. Every once in awhile, the plants would drip lazily to the surface, like it was raining daisy chains.

Foreign as this planet’s ecology was, he’s sure that if Pidge were with him, she would have bounded outside with a datapad in hand, heedless to the rest of the team’s worry. Maybe Hunk would chase after her, and Lance would meander slowly after. 

Maybe he would rest on Red’s snout, and Shiro would be there too, guessing at what the chemical makeup could possibly be, to make the sky react with such a strong blue. 

But they weren’t here with him. 

And he wasn’t here with him.

So Keith opted to not think too much about it at all.

Instead, he stretched, feeling the distinct popping cracking of his spine desperately trying to realign itself. Keith slumped back into his seat, the crick in his neck now at a constant pain that disallowed him from turning his head anything past 60 degrees to the left.

At dawn every day, like clockwork, he opened up Red’s map, scanning through all the places left that he had not yet crossed off. It was a completely empty, a darkness between the star systems. 

It had been the place of their last fight with Zarkon. The battleground where they wounded the emperor and won

But not Shiro.

It’s been months since the last time they had seen him, and Keith has returned again and again, sifting through the wreckage of war.

He would spend hours out in the vast, blankness of space, searching for any possible heat signatures, trace as they may be. Endlessly, daily, he would carefully check each blown out galra fighter craft, each battleship, empty and leaning. Husks drifting through the darkness, shattered remnants of what was once whole, with purpose. 

They were a reminder of the brutality of their fight, but it was only a faint twinge of pain at the back of his mind, pushed down desperately in favor of his drive, his need to search.

He didn’t didn’t want to admit to himself that at some level, he knew how ridiculous this all was.

Keith would leave that thought to haunt him in his nightmares instead.

In the end, all he could ever do is press forward, like he usually did.

“Alright, Red.” He tapped his finger against the map, an x forming where he touched. “We’re going here today.”

Red responded with a low growl, her uneasy emotions flooding into him. Keith furrowed his brow in reply. “What’s wrong?”

A notification popped up on his screen, the little red number “1” instantly filling him with annoyance.

It had been a message that he had avoided for days now, knowing the contents would yet again be another summon for another pointless meeting with diplomats. Haltingly, he opened the letter and read its contents. 

_Keith,_

_Please make sure you can return to the castleship in 6 quintants. We will be negotiating our protections in exchange for resources with the Ruidan people. I have attached a document that will give you an overview of Ruida cultural customs, in the event that you cannot make it to the paladin debriefing in time._

_-Allura_

He worried at his lip for a moment, checking the date sent, 5 quintants and 8 varga ago. Keith had no choice but to abandon his work for today and head back.

“Fuck.” He growled under his breath.

With gritted teeth, he slammed his fist against his arm rest before punching the thrusters.

* * *

It wasn’t surprising to him when, after just docking Red, he spotted the princess in the hallway. She was dressed in her royal attire, white locks loose and cascading against her back. Under the soft castleship light, she was as still as stone. If he hadn’t known better, Keith could almost believe that she was simply a statue of herself, and nothing more.

“I’m glad you could make it, Keith.” Allura spoke, breaking the awkward tension first. Though her words were of gratitude, her body language contrasted, her arms folded tight against her body, her mouth turned downwards into a frown. 

He regarded her quietly, pulling his helmet off and resting it into the crook of his elbow. “Just doing what was asked of me, Princess.”

Barely a twitch of her lips was her response before turning, walking ahead of him and away from the docking bay. “I trust that you’ve read about the Ruidan people and their customs?”

“I did.” Keith replied, briskly. In the end, the two of them knew that it didn’t matter. 

As the Red Paladin, he represented Voltron. The so-called united front of the four remaining paladins encircling the table with sympathetic ears, listening to the plight of an alien race. He was only there to bring validity to their coalition. 

Keith would sit there, silently, his words unnecessary in the face of the princess’ tact and cultivated political sensibilities. He would jiggle his leg under the table for two, maybe three hours, feel the time slip through his fingers.

He would try not to scream.

It was all a sham.

Because when it came to it, he was nothing but a face for a cause he could no longer understand.

He followed Allura, allowing silence to fill the space between them as they walked to the meeting hall. Keith looked at her back, the sway of her cape as it trailed behind her, and fervently wondered how she could be so calm in the face of such disaster. 

How any of them could be, how they could move forward despite everything. 

It was easier to pretend that the princess no longer cared, as with the rest of the paladins, and while he knew he was stubborn, he was no child and could not allow himself to have such a simplistic explanation. He could only boil it down to the fact that _they could just do what he couldn’t_ _and push through_.

Keith looked at the back of the princess and ached with a kind of envy. She knew the cost of losing this war, yet she was able to steel herself to the pain, and instead be spurred towards her goal because of it.

_But then, what would Shiro do in the face of loss?_

He would carry on, of course. 

Keith understood that part of Shiro intimately. He remembered the nights back in the garrison, which now felt eons ago, and how even then, those warmly colored days held a sense of dreaded anticipation. 

Though it was easy at first, and he was too young to understand, the fear only grew as the looming idea of Kerberos slid over the horizon. Keith knew there was nothing he could do to stop him from doing what he wanted to do, pushing himself to higher and higher heights of success. But Shiro knew he worried, quietly by himself, and so he hid the shaking in his arms, the poster boy perfect smile on his face tinged with a paleness only Keith could notice, and say nothing to.

Shiro’s gaze never wavered from the stars, not once.

His ability to sacrifice his emotions for the greater good could only be paralleled by Princess Allura and so, watching her now was a wave of jealousy crashing over him.

Though he strove to be good, patient, kind, to be all of what Shiro believed him to be, he knew he couldn’t see what Shiro saw, let alone be it. 

_If I have to fail._

_I can’t fail at finding you, too._

His brooding was interrupted by the blinding lights of the meeting hall, quickly exposing his thoughts as they fled back into the safety of darkness. He blinked against the brightness, eyes squinting likely from the weeks he had spent in relative darkness. Each time he came back, he could never get used to this.

He and the princess were the last to arrive, of course. Pidge, Lance, Hunk, and several aliens halted in their conversation, turning to observe the two of them as they took their seats on opposite sides of the table.

“Apologies for the wait.” Allura addressed them congenially. Around the room there was a murmur of greetings. “The Red Paladin has arrived, and so we may start our talks.”

Once in his seat Keith slumped, settling back into a familiar haze, the edges of the words spoken softening around him until he was numbed from it all. The princess will begin with an opening statement so well worn and practiced, all the paladins could mouth along to it alongside her. 

Like clockwork, the Ruidan ambassadors voiced their concerns, spoke of the plight of their people since the Galra invasion.

Allura would then counter, speaking of their feats as Voltron, only to be shot down by the ambassadors for their conspicuously missing fifth paladin.

It was an endless cycle would end with the tabling of the conversation, both parties exhausted and uncertain by the end of it all.

As the Ruidans filed out with the promise that they would return with the word of a fifth paladin, the rest of the group began to scatter, claiming training or tasks to be attended to. Keith stood, taking it as an opportunity to leave and set flight with Red once again. 

“Keith.” Her voice now echoed against the walls of the mostly empty hall. He turned back to see Allura still standing beside her chair. “May I talk to you for just a moment?”

With a sigh, he set down his helmet on the table, the clang of it reverberting. “What do you want?”

Keith was sure that once again, the tone of his voice was sharper than he intended. For just a moment she flinched against his words, before just as quickly reigning herself back in, standing tall with her hands as fists against her side. He didn’t know why, but the action only irritated him.

“Keith, I’m sorry, but you cannot continue doing this.” Her brows were knitted, worried. It only served to stoke the flame in him higher.

“Continue what?” He challenged, and never thought to give her the chance to defend. “Looking for Shiro, our leader, while the rest of you play pretend with diplomats?”

“Yes… Searching for Shiro, and neglecting the fact that we are at _war_.” Allura folded her arms then, around herself, her gaze downcast and jaw tight. “This isn’t pretend, Keith, and don’t forget that we looked too. We spent weeks looking for a sign of him, and we found nothing, not even his bod-” 

“But not months.” Keith interrupted. His throat was dry and ears ringing, racing to cover her words with his own. 

_Don’t say it_.

_If she says it-_

_It would be all over._

She didn’t continue her sentence, which would have completed her final syllable to a word he dreaded, one that Keith knew threatened to break the tedious balance that he clung to. Instead he listened to her take in a hitched breath. 

When he looked at her then, he could only see the defeat in her eyes. The stony acceptance that she had once again hit a wall with him. Though he knew it was selfish and petty, he relished in her exhaustion. It was a war of attrition, and once again, he had won.

Her fingers slid against the navigational panel, a single, sweeping motion as if to calm herself. When her hand reached the end of the surface, it dropped like a weight against her side. Allura closed her eyes, turning her back on him.

“At least make sure you’re sleeping a proper amount and taking enough rations.” She murmured quietly. “And please make sure your com channels are open so we can always let you know when you need to come back.” 

He could only manage a terse nod. “Fine.”

“You are needed in these meetings, whether you like it or not.”

The words were final, and with them, she walked out of the hall and out of sight. 

Keith was alone again, the flame in him still smoldering as his thoughts raced.

In truth, he knew how unreasonable he was being. He knew how much time he was wasting, with a much greater purpose at hand. Even then, he couldn’t stop himself.

He should be used to this by now. They didn’t understand that this was all he could do, all he had been reduced to. 

_They didn’t understand._

Sometimes, he wished he could truly explain what it felt like.

It wasn’t simple like anger, all jagged edges seeking out to hurt others in the bite of his words and the rage in his stare. 

It was insidious, like slowly drifting into murkier waters, until you were unable to understand what was up and what was down.

He learned to expect it when it caught him in the middle of the night, when he twisted awake, his lungs threatening to collapse as he gasped against it, the grief of it all. 

The fact was that his limbs were numb from the weight of it, the weight of the absence of his best friend.

Keith knew it had taken him completely, sunk him like a heavy stone at the bottom of a lake, unmoved by even the strongest of currents. But he was used to it by now. 

After all, he had a year of practice.

But then again, those days he had spent, expelled from the garrison, half crazed by an unknown force that was just out of his reach, now felt like a distant memory. Because though he had no power to control the circumstances, he believed Shiro dead, lost to the stars and forever separated from him. At the time, he had thought he had no choice but to give up to his own weaknesses.

Now, with the Red Lion, with the limitless ability to seek him out in the universe, how could it be that he felt even more powerless to protect what he was terrified of losing the most.

So he now feared, only four months in, what he would be like when a year would pass and Shiro had not returned to them. 

Returned to him.

Because for all he knew, the other paladins, the princess, had all moved on. 

Keith had also not forgotten Shiro’s words. His intent to make Keith his successor.

The expectation that he could take Shiro’s place like a great weight strung around his throat, a burden pressing down onto his shoulders.

How could he possibly take his place? 

How could he possibly move on, and leave Shiro behind?

“Keith?” 

The small voice startled him out of his thoughts. It was Pidge at the other side of the hall, now dressed in her civilian wear. She held her hands behind her back, hesitant.

It dawned on him that it had been weeks since he last saw her in her familiar sweater and shorts, the worn soft fabric making her look particularly vulnerable.

“Hey.” Keith replied gruffly.

“How’s… how’s it going?” She glanced at it from the side of her eye, the stutter failing her attempt at a casual tone of conversation.

“How do you think it’s going?” He said with a roll of his eyes. The sarcasm did nothing to deter her though, and she stepped closer to him. 

“Well…” Pidge countered by punctuating the “L’s” at the end of the word with a little glare. She seemed to return his attitude with a bit of her own before softening. “I’m here for a reason. I… I wanted to give you this.” 

There was something strangely counterintuitive and calming about her snarking response. Unlike the rest of the paladins, he knew Pidge could take it and dish it out equal measures. They had, what felt like, a longstanding mutual understanding.

After a moment of indecision, she thrust her hands forward, holding out a rectangular device, no bigger than a datapad. He took it in his hands carefully, and the screen lit up to reveal her signature logo of her smirking cartoon face. “What… what is this?” 

“It’s a locator.” Pidge said, pushing up her glasses nervously. “In- in theory, I mean. As long as you have some DNA or other identifying biology and their quintessence signature, you should be able to find someone.”

Keith’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Pidge, you can’t mean you’re giving this to me to find Shiro-” 

“I am.” She insisted forcefully. “I’ve already loaded it up with Shiro’s unique signature.”

With a few taps, she was able to bring up his data, the screen changing to a plan position indicator, a cursor swinging slowly in a circle, empty of any nearby signs. Keith didn’t know why, but his awe and wonderment, the hope he had felt at that moment, wavered at the blank screen. 

“Of course, it’s not going to pick up on anything nearby.” Pidge said quickly, perceiving his frustration. “And I’m giving it to you with a price.” 

“What do you mean?” He raised an eyebrow. He doubted that money, no matter the currency, was something she wanted. 

“This is a prototype. I want you to report to me about how it’s functioning, whether or not any errors come up.” She reached over and pressed a couple more buttons, a full list of profiles coming up. “I’ve been testing it on the other paladins to make sure it works, but…” 

Keith swiped up, reaching the bottom of the list. There it was, _Matthew Holt_ and _Samuel Holt_.

“I don’t have either of their quintessence signatures.” Pidge explained, quietly. “I’m hoping if it works for Shiro, I could adjust it.”

Matt and her dad were still out there, lost too. How could Keith have forgotten? Like him, Pidge had taken to the stars not for the sake of Voltron or some higher purpose, but to find the people she cared about.

He couldn’t imagine the hours she had spent working on this between fighting and talking to alien politicians. Now she was giving it to him to test, to find Shiro. She was entrusting him with the smallest chance she had of uncovering the whereabouts of her own family. It was an unbelievably selfless gesture, one that made him grind his teeth against it to maintain his composure.

“I’ll take you up on your offer.” Was all he could manage after a moment of silence, his throat tight. “Thank you, Pidge.” 

“No problem,” She broke out into a smile, “It’ll sure help us to have Shiro with us again… and to not have you be such a grumpy asshole all the time.” 

“I’m not-” Keith sighed, a hand rubbing down his face in defeat. “Yeah okay. I know I’m being an asshole.” 

“I get it, though.” She said softly. 

His hand reached out to her shoulder to give her a reassuring squeeze. “I know you do.”

* * *

When Keith took to the stars with Red this time, there was the smallest glimmer of hope. He quickly loaded the cockpit with only the barest of necessities, rations and water, before he was back out on the battlefield and in his search.

He gingerly placed the locator beside his pilot chair before pulling up a document on Red’s onboard systems he intended to use as a log for Pidge. 

“Alright Red. We had a detour, but I think we got something good for it.” Deep in his consciousness, he could feel her rumble in agreement. “Let’s head out to the location that I marked down this morning.”

It wasn’t a quick trip, but it was now a familiar one. Traveling by lion wasn’t necessarily the most effective way of transport, given that he was unable to warp like the Castleship. Even still, after the battle, it was Zarkon’s forces that had chosen retreat, allowing the paladins to stay relatively nearby. Keith settled himself in for an hours long flight, pushing Red to a comfortable speed.

There was a certain sight that Keith, even after the months he had spent sifting through the area, was unable to truly shake from his mind. 

Hundreds of miles away from the sight of battle was a slowly drifting sea of wreckage, ever expanding in a slow ripple, a radius of destruction that echoed the desperation of the players in a game to take the universe for themselves. It was a vision of the carnage that the paladins had no choice but to bring upon the Galra in an effort to stay Zarkon’s hand. 

The sight before him was the true price of the war they fought.

Sometimes, more often when he first began his search, he would encounter the bodies of the empire’s forces, frozen in time, mangled and in pieces. The brutality of their ends were not lost on him. 

He feared the same for his own friends, if he were the one to take charge. 

Never was there a day when the words didn’t echo in his mind. As if Shiro was aware that he would once again have an untimely disappearance. 

_“I want you to lead Voltron.”_

Keith wanted to brush it off as his delirium, that the pain had gotten to him at that moment and he had spoken rashly because he was the only one beside Shiro on that desolate planet. Yet he couldn’t shake the softness, the peace in Shiro’s eyes as he finished his sentence. The surety in the way he had looked at him. 

He couldn’t forget the power of the Black Lion’s ferocious, all-consuming acceptance of him when he pled to her to help him save Shiro.

Keith leaned forward, looking down at his own hands, remembering the corpses that were now doomed to float in an endless void, torn from their own lives and dreams

How could he also doom his own friends to the same fate, away from home and lost in space?

And now, the only one that had believed in him, was also out there, no matter how hard Keith tried to bring him back.

Though Shiro’s expectation was once a great and wondrous aspiration, Keith knew he would threaten to crack under the pressure without him.

Red growled, startling him from his daze. At first, he almost apologized, thinking she had done so in warning to let him know he had drifted completely off track, their currently location now miles away from the intended destination. Instead, a faint light stole his attention. 

It was a light coming from Pidge’s device. The range had expanded on the plan position indicator, a pulsing green dot hundreds of miles way.

“Red.” He sharply inhaled. “You know what this means, right?” 

From the Red Lion erupted a roar, and he slammed on the thrusters. 

_There’s still a chance that this is an error, like Pidge told me to watch out for._ His brain reminded him, though his pulse pounded in his ears, soaring through his chest. _But if it’s not an error, then it has to be Shiro. We’ve found him._

The lion under his piloting seemed to soar, speeding past star systems and dipping gracefully through asteroid fields. Maybe Shiro had found a habitable planet to land on, he thought. Or maybe Shiro found a willing spaceship to take him onboard. 

But as he neared, the black emptiness of space filled his vision. It was clear, the closer he got, that there was no planets closeby, no trade routes bearing interstellar ships. 

He was hurtling headlong into uninhabited darkness. 

Keith’s heart sank, prepared to write to Pidge and explain the glitch, but there was a whimper, a quiet and wounded one from Red.

“What’s wrong, girl?” He asked, though the emotion of devastated disappointment was heavy in his voice.

Red continued to whimper, now almost sounding terrified. He squinted out into the distance, searching for what could possibly scare a lion of Voltron.

There was, almost completely obscured, hidden. 

The wreckage of the Black Lion. 

“ _No_.” he breathed. “No, there’s no fucking way.” 

His mind raced. It was unthinkable, even as he approached it, saw the charred hull of the lion split open, parts of the cockpit exposed to space. 

Keith had just seen the Black Lion in the hanger. How could the Galra have attacked so quickly, and destroyed the Black Lion as easily? He flipped through his notifications, finding nothing recent. There was no chance- 

Unless they were hit so suddenly, they had no chance of even summoning Keith back to the Castleship. 

“I- I have to get out there to Black.” He said to Red shakily, initiating the unlocking systems. “Stay here, okay?”

With trembling arms, he hauled himself downwards and into her mouth, waiting open and framing the horrifying sight before him.

Keith never thought that he could look upon a lion in such destruction. Parts of the Black Lion’s internal structure oozed out, slow moving as if blood from a corpse. The lions of Voltron seemed so impervious to permanent damage, yet a single sentence rang true in his mind. 

_She’s dead._

As he neared the lion, his hands grasped a part of her hull, pulling him forward and into the remains of the cockpit. Keith winced to himself, as if he was scared of hurting her.

For a moment, he tapped against the navigational systems, a hopeless attempt of resuscitating her. There was no response.

Miraculously, the pilot chair was intact. Keith gripped the chair’s arm, dragging himself into the seat and gripping the controls. 

_This is stupid_ . He told himself. _But I have to do something, anything._

Keith shut his eyes, forcing himself to concentrate, to imagine what it was like when he first connected with Black. He envisioned her, once again whole and her interior glowing a comforting purple.

He had no idea how long he sat there, willing himself to ignore his own breath, panting from the sheer amount of fear and adrenaline coursing through his veins. His arms ached from the force of holding himself down, keeping him from floating away.

_I should give up._

_But I can’t._

_Not on the Black Lion, not on Shiro._

Like a heavy force striking him in the chest, a roar exploded from the Black Lion, shocking him enough to let go of the controls and sending him tumbling in what he thought was space. 

Suddenly he was falling.

Above him, he could see pure blue and a singular white light. It was blinding, piercing Keith through like a spear, the wind rushing past him as he sped faster and faster downwards.

_I’m falling._

_That means there’s a ground to fall into._

_This is how I’ll die. Confused and alone._

He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the final impact of his life, and moments later, he found himself reaching that end, and breaching it.

Keith choked out a gasp, but instead of air, he found liquid rushing into his lungs. It was water, or something like it, quickly invading his cracked helmet and drowning him. He flailed his arms and kicked his legs, frantically trying to find what had to be the surface. Dimly, he could see the bright white light, determining that it must mean he was going upwards. 

Breaking through the water, his eyes scanned his surroundings. Keith could see the shore surrounding him on all sides, and decided to swim to the nearest bank. He had found himself in a lake, thankfully.

Distantly, he could hear shouting. Perhaps an alien race, he thought to himself as he closed in on the edge of the lake, his boots sliding along the sandy lake floor. He could only hope they were friendly. 

It was then that a hand reached out to him, five fingered, and despite its owner’s intentions, Keith held onto it gratefully, feeling the individual easily drag him onto shore.

“K-Keith?” He could hear the shock in the man’s voice, somehow knew the restrained note of anxiety that he heard.

He felt the water escape, rushing around his neck as his helmet was pulled off and the seal disengaged. Keith looked upwards, about to ask how the alien knew his name, and looked into Shiro’s eyes. 

It was Shiro.

Keith had found him.

“Shiro. I’ve found you.” He gasped out, his voice wavering, on the verge of once again coughing, his lungs frantically expelling the trapped lake water. 

He gripped the front of Shiro’s shirt then, surprised that it was a crisply clean, white button up. Finally Keith’s vision cleared, and there, he was stunned to make out that Shiro’s hair had also become completely silver. 

“Shiro…?” There couldn’t be anyone else but him, but the man that cradled him in his arms, hands holding him steadily against his chest, seemed somehow more solid than before. 

_If that was even possible for Shiro,_ said his intrusive thoughts. That wasn’t what was important right now.

“You- You were gone. After the fight with Zarkon, I-” Keith fought against his own words, hoarse and burning as they slipped out of his mouth, only to stop short when he saw a flicker of recognition in Shiro’s eyes, before he settled into a worried frown.

He took a moment to scan his surroundings, the lush greenery of what seemed to be a park by the lake, on a beautifully sunny day. The star overhead, after years out in space, stung his eyes. It was almost like it was back on Earth. 

But that was impossible. 

“You didn’t find him.” A voice broke his quickly derailing train of thought, and it eerily felt as familiar as the slide of his worn leather gloves against the palm of his hands. Keith knew this voice, so closely it was unsettling.

“You were the one that came here.”

When he finally turned his head around to look, a shiver ran through his body, colder than the water he had just been submerged in. 

“What…?” Was the only utterance he could offer, under his breath in complete disbelief. 

There stood before him was himself, somehow older, with a scar on his cheek. Where he had somehow expected, instinctively, hostility from a man that was a mirror image of his likeness, there was only knitted brows in concern. 

“Keith.” 

He had never heard his name from his own lips. 

“How did you get here?” The man now crouched, cradling his face, turning it from side to side. “How did you get back on Earth?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check out all the art, created by the lovely Prosaicwonder on their twitter! 
> 
> twitter.com/prosaicwonder/status/1208793123167576064?s=20


	3. Superposition

The ride back to the house was a silent one. Once Shiro and the man that looked like him helped him get his waterlogged armor pieces off, the undersuit dried using its superior Altean technology. Quietly, the two of them had guided Keith to a vehicle that looked quite similar to the popular styles of automobiles on Earth, Shiro taking the wheel. 

A dizzying smear of pines and evergreens slid by his car window. Keith sat stunned, his limbs exhausted from the fight to the surface of the lake. 

Though his heart pounded in his chest, the dampness of his hair pressing against the headrest of his seat and into the nape of his neck centered him. He gazed out at the blue skies, the white clouds out in the distance, and watched the world go by.

It had to be Earth. 

Though he recognized none of his surroundings, the green foliage, the solid grey stones that dotted the edges of the road, the scent of a newly made highway, the very air in his lungs, all told him. 

He was Home.

“Keith?” He heard Shiro murmur. “Keith.” 

He had fallen asleep. 

He slowly cracked his eyes open, blearily taking in the vision of Shiro and his white hair, leaning over him from the opened car door. Behind him, the sun hung brightly in the sky. 

The vision was almost divine. 

“How are you holding up?” Shiro asked, almost too casually. It was just like him, to face the most bizarre of circumstances with an unhurried temperament.

Keith scooted up in his seat, taking a quick look around. They were parked before a picturesque suburban style home, surrounded by acres of mowed lawn and trees for as far as the eye could see. Though the house seemed like the only one in the vicinity, the street up to the building was paved and brand new.

“I think… I think I’m okay?” He finally managed, even though it was a question in the end. 

“Good.” Shiro smiled. “Would you like to come inside? You probably want a shower, get all of that lake water off of you.”

Keith nodded, swinging a leg out of the car. As he stood, he could feel Shiro’s watchful eyes taking him in, making sure that he was truly unharmed.

He could appear relaxed, but he couldn’t lie in the way he looked at Keith when he thought he wasn’t being seen. Keith took an odd comfort in that, knowing that at least he still knew what Shiro was thinking. 

“Keith- I, I mean- _Kogane_ is already in the house. He’s getting things ready for you. I came back to see if you were awake enough to go in.” He stuttered, and for a split second, Shiro’s easygoing facade dropped at his own correction. 

Keith snorted, a short laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. “We’re calling him _Kogane_?” 

“It’s what he suggested, to lessen the confusion.” He shrugged. “Do you have something else to suggest?” 

“No.” Keith answered, quickly. His eyes shifted, his vision landing on the perfectly laid out flagstones that led up to the front door. “I just… I don’t know. Why is he changing his name? Why not me?”

Shiro made a soft noise in his throat, as if he wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

“It’s fine.” He mumbled. “Let’s just go inside.” 

* * *

By the time Keith had finished a quick tour of the house and reached the spacious second floor bathroom- towel and a change of clothes in hand- he had been rendered speechless.

The two story suburban home was perfect and open, with all sorts of things that were clearly there just to take up space on end tables and bookshelves to look pretty. Keith had never owned anything just to have it sit there and look _pretty._

He thought back to the shack out in the dessert, the remaining piece of himself that he held on Earth after the fire destroyed his home and his life. If he was right, it was still out there, the tiny thing that could barely be considered a standing structure with pullout a couch and too much grime to ever be fully clean.

_When the fuck did Shiro and I get a chance to be roommates in such big fucking house._

He turned the shower on, momentarily shocked to find that the water cascaded like rain overhead, at the perfect temperature only seconds later. Figures. 

The shower was time for him to think of where he had actually gone and what he had gotten himself into. 

He found Shiro. Or so he thought. The older version of himself, or rather, Kogane, had explained enigmatically that he that he hadn’t found Shiro, and that he was the one that arrived on Earth.

That didn’t explain anything. 

_Was I always that weird and cryptic?_

He soaped himself down, a pleasant and unobtrusive scent filling his nose. When he finally stepped out of the shower and dried himself with the fluffy towel, he realized that this was the cleanest he had ever felt in his life.

Keith stepped into the shorts, pulling on the shirt that Kogane had offered him at the same time. He was nearly drowning in the fabric, yanking on the drawstrings and tying them together tightly to ensure the shorts wouldn’t just fall off his waist as soon as he moved. 

Was there a chance that these were actually Shiro’s? It couldn’t be, because Keith had a sneaking suspicion that those clothes would be even worse. 

Barefoot, he gingerly stepped outside of the bathroom and into the stairwell, remembering how they had let him know that they would be in the kitchen downstairs. Step by step, he creaked down the staircase, the wood paneling perfect and smooth against his toes.

“What did you do?” 

He heard the soft sounds of muted conversation. 

“I called them over, told them it was urgent.”

There was a sigh. 

“That sounds like a good idea. We’ll have to figure out what’s happening, and it’s better to have them all together.”

As he rounded the corner he was struck with the image of himself, older and more settled in himself, and Shiro, leaning against the countertop with cups of coffee in hand.

To say it was a contrast to the world he had just existed in was an understatement. 

Keith thought back to the smell of war, of gunpowder, of harsh, mysterious chemicals singing his nose. He thought of the screaming, the anger and adrenaline coursing through him as he took aim at each Galra fighter. He thought of the chaos, and the crowding sense of terror that gripped every one of them in their sleep. 

Here, it seemed completely out of place. 

“Look who’s here.” Kogane smiled, relaxed as he slid over a new cup and poured from the coffee pot beside him. “I’m pretty sure we were well into our caffeine addiction by now, weren’t we?” 

While Keith took the cup gratefully, his brows furrowed. It was strange that not only did he hit the nail on the head, he was referring to himself and Keith as “we.” 

Naturally, as if it took no effort to accept him. 

“How do you know that I’m-” 

“We know.” Shiro replied firmly, the tone of his voice a warm rumble in his chest.

“But do you guys know…” He shook his head, unable to put it politely. “Just what the fuck is going on?” 

Shiro gave out a single laugh, a humorless one, as if to acknowledge the improbability of the situation. “We don’t, but we’re asking for everyone to come by so we can put our heads together.” 

Keith hadn’t realized how much he missed Shiro’s voice. The calm, commanding sort of certainty he held with each syllable. How could anyone imagine him taking Shiro’s place? 

Who else could lead Keith, but Shiro? 

That’s why, he knew, he had to bring him back to the other paladins. Without Shiro, they might as well have lost. 

“Who’s ‘everyone’?” He took a sip of the coffee, finding it exactly to his liking. 

Kogane caught his eye, giving him a wink, as if knowing that he had managed to serve Keith his favorite way of taking coffee. His face flushed, eyes shifting away from his older self, unsure with how he should respond.

“‘Everyone’ is everyone that is on the planet right now. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance. Allura is… off planet, taking care of other things.” Kogane tilted his head as he held himself back from revealing her whereabouts. “Don’t worry, she’s perfectly fine. We’re just worried about giving you too much information right now.” 

Keith’s eyes widened. They were trying to _hide_ things from him?

“It’s not that we want to hide anything from you or that we don’t trust you Keith. But we’re thinking that it might be too much.” Kogane rushed to reassure him as if reading his mind.

“This very well might be your future.” Shiro finally voiced the words unspoken, the concept that the three of them had been revolving around since the start of the conversation. At the moment, it was the only explanation that made sense, so Keith nodded in reply as Shiro continued. “We want to make sure that we don’t jeopardize the chain of events if that’s the case. Besides, we have more pressing concerns.” 

He gestured towards Keith, a quick flick of his hand. “How are you keeping those clothes on?” 

“Oh.” He mumbled, hearing Kogane snort, trying to hold back his laughter. Slowly he lifted the hem of his shirt, revealing the shorts that had been tied around him, the fabric bunching. “This was the best I could do.” 

“Then we can do better. I’ll text Hunk to bring him some of my old clothes from the shack.” Kogane pulled his phone out of his pocket.

 _The shack,_ Keith finally breathed, not knowing that he had been holding it in, _so it really does still exist._

“Oh, he’s not going to like that. Look, he just replied in the group chat.” Shiro immediately took a peek at his phone.

He watched as the two of them shared a grin.

_Were we… were we always like that?_

The wait would be a bit longer than expected, they explained to Keith. So he was free to take the time to explore the house and backyard. In hopes of quelling the obvious awkward tension between the three of them, he took the offer and excused himself, holding his cup of coffee in hand as he roamed.

“Oh, just a word of warning.” Kogane gave him as a parting gift. “If you see a giant blue wolf coming at you, don’t worry, he’s friendly and he likes you.” 

Choosing to push the advice to the back of his mind rather than to dwell on the implications, he wandered around the house. He perused the books in the study and took the time to look at the view from the balcony, equipped with a patio table and lounge chairs.

By the time he had made his way to the backyard, making his rounds around the sizable pool, he had forgotten the warning altogether. 

Of course, only until he heard what sounded like a happy yelp from a dog, and instantly found himself bowled over into the grass. 

“What the fuck- hey, stop, _stop_ -” Wide tongued, doggy licks on his face ensued, and Keith scrambled to push the solid weight and fluff off of him.

It was a blue wolf. A horse sized one. 

Kogane really wasn’t fucking kidding.

Tentatively, he reached a hand out, petting the wolf at the side of his neck. “It’s um… nice to meet you, wolf.” 

The wolf gave out a huff of what seemed like pleasure at the greeting, nosing against the palm of Keith’s hand.

Suddenly he found himself back in the kitchen, teleported with wolf in tow. The wolf blinked his round eyes and with a flash, he disappeared out of sight. Flat on his back, Keith decided to remain on the floor, trying to take it in. 

“Okay, so the wolf can do that.” He muttered.

“He can do that.” He heard Shiro reply. 

“We were just about to call you in, anyways.” Kogane added. Keith sat up, seeing three nervous faces peering back at him.

Hunk. Pidge. Lance. 

He had just seen them hours before, but now it felt like lifetimes ago. 

Their appearance had also changed, grown up. It was disorienting to see them like this - so drastically different, as if he had fallen asleep in a healing pod and allowed himself to slip away for years, only to see that his world had changed into something so pristine, so flawless and peaceful. If only that was the case, that he could close his eyes and leave the war behind.

If only.

As he hauled himself onto a counter stool, embarrassed that their sort-of reunion was them blinking owlishly at him on the floor, he saw Pidge walk closer, as did Lance. The two of them circling him curiously.

“So he really _is_ a younger Keith.” She looked at him with a barely held back note of excitement. 

“Sure is.” Lance replied, “I’d recognize that angry mullet anywhere.”

Though Keith should have been accustomed to Lance’s sarcastic ribbing, there was a different quality to it, muted like a worn out inside joke and without any of the intended pain it once held. He looked at Kogane, who had a knowing half smirk on his face.

“H-here you go.” Hunk spoke quietly, hesitantly, as he handed Keith his clothing. 

His expression was not unlike the one that Hunk would wear when approaching the team with some new, innovative dish he had created. The unsureness on his face oddly calmed Keith, familiar as it was.

“Thanks.”

He took the clothing into his hands, finding them exactly as if he had folded them up and put them aside. From the red jacket, there was still a faint smell of mustiness, as if the clothing had been untouched for awhile now. The incongruence of his black t-shirt, fading into a dark grey, and his jeans, threadbare at the knees, was an unsettling strangeness in his stomach. 

Just the other day, he felt that he had worn these clothes. Here, in this world, it was clear that it had been years since this version of himself had donned them, maybe even a decade. 

“Keith, can you tell me how you got here?” Pidge questioned him, turning Keith’s attention back to her. “Tell us as much as you can, with as much detail as possible, even if it doesn’t make any sense.”

After seeing the rest of the team, he half expected Pidge to tower over him too, but interestingly, she had stayed just about the same height. Instead, it seemed that the nervous energy she once held had seeped out of her. The person before him now seemed so much more self-assured, mature, but no less curious.

“I was… looking for Shiro.” He started, his voice hoarse and quiet. “After the fight with Zarkon… he was just… gone.” 

“Just like I thought.” He heard the older version of himself say, a pained smile on his lips. Beside him, Shiro was silent, his hands balled into fists on the kitchen counter.

 _So he knew._ Keith thought to himself, both panic and relief washing over him, rising to fight against each other. _If he knows, then that might mean-_

“Go on, Keith.” Pidge gazed at him intently. “Tell us what happened while you were looking for him.”

“It had been weeks… months. I didn’t find anything. Pidge gave me a device that could read Shiro’s energy signal. I was trying to use it.” Then he tilted his head, trying to find the best way to explain what happened next, as confusing and senseless as it was. “I found the Black Lion, just drifting out there in space.” 

Keith didn’t fail to notice the flit of worry crossing over both Pidge and Hunk’s faces, the wary glance they shared as soon as he mentioned the lion. 

“It was… weird though, because I could have sworn I had just seen it in the Castleship just a couple hours ago. I checked inside, but it was dead. Derelict. Suddenly I felt like I was falling, and I landed in the lake.”

As soon as he finished, Pidge nodded, as if what he had just said, however brief, had made sense and confirmed her thoughts. Hunk looked lost in thought beside her. 

“It couldn’t be-” He started.

“Well, the thing is, the raw materials didn’t necessarily have to be forged and functional to have that capability. If you remember, that incident with Lotor-” Pidge interrupted quickly.

“Then that would mean-” Hunk sharply countered.

“I think that’s the only way this could have occurred-”

“Okay, can _someone_ tell me what the nerds are muttering about?” Lance’s exasperated voice rose sharply over the rest, shrill in the way it was when he felt left out. “We’re all here too, you guys.” 

Keith watched himself from the other side of the kitchen as he looked dubiously at Lance in response. “Shiro and I pretty much think we know what’s going on.” Beside him, Shiro smiled, sheepishly apologetic.

“Alright, just _me_ then.” Lance threw his hands in the air.

Pidge sighed, propping her arm against the back of her barstool, twisting to address him with a glare. “Years ago, remember when we went on that fool’s errand where we discovered a comet? With signatures that indicated it was the exact same material that Voltron was formed from?”

“Oh yeah…” He mumbled, as the memory came back to him. “Didn’t we end up in an alternate dimension or something with the not-Shiro named Sven, and the Alteans were the Galra?” 

“What.” Keith gaped. 

Pidged waved her hand dismissively. “That’s neither here nor there. The main point being, we think the Black Lion did the same thing to Keith.”

“We think the lions have the ability to transverse time and space.” Hunk explained, helpfully. “The comet didn’t have to be refined into the lions to take us to a wildly alternate dimension. With what little power left, it might have traveled from our dimension into Keith’s. It created a tear in the universe, and he slipped through.”

Keith looked down at his hands and at the neatly folded clothing, speechless. He could tell himself that he had finally passed out from exhaustion. He was still somewhere out in space, his face smashed into the Red Lion’s controls and this was all some sort of dream, or a vivid hallucination, but none of it had the qualities of his dreams. Falling into the lake would have had to wake him up. 

Seeing Shiro’s face would have also woke him up. 

And he knew that from experience, from the panicked grasping at nothing in the air, the chill of grief mixed with embarrassment. The heavy air of silence that would gradually blend with the pounding of his heart, each pulse a reminder that he was alive and here, when Shiro was not.

Besides, none of his dreams could have ever been like this lately. Rosy and warm, tinged with the happy, golden glow of idyllic Earthly life.

This had to be real, then.

“I believe you.” He finally uttered. “But how do I get back?”

“The last time, the comet was lodged in place because the tear was too small for the Altean ship to pass through. Can we do the same with the Black Lion?” Shiro suggested. 

Hunk shook his head. “We were lucky things worked out fine the last time. I don’t think we can rely on bringing Keith to the same spot above the lake. You said that the tear disappeared as soon as he left it, right?”

“But we’re also lucky this time as well.” Pidge spoke up, finger against her cheek, contemplating. “This is the best case scenario for Keith to wind up with us on Earth. We can take our time to research, find a way to get him back safely.”

The rest of the paladins fell into discussing scheduling and logistics, Keith feeling like a child in a room full of adults in his oversized t-shirt and shorts, unable to understand the quick back and forth of suggestions. After a moment, they collectively decided that tomorrow would be best for them to start at the lab nearby, one that Pidge had commissioned its construction for her experiments a couple years earlier.

It would be best, they reassured him, to take it easy for the rest of the day and spend some time with Shiro and Kogane while the three of them gathered resources and made preparations. 

The three of them said their goodbyes as their friends left the house, still discussing different possibilities and initial tests they could begin tomorrow morning. Rather, Pidge and Hunk were the ones discussing. Lance walked beside them, eyes blank and dead to the world.

“Now,” Kogane said as he shut the door. “Why don’t we start making dinner? I’m sure you’re hungry.” 

And hungry he was. Starving, really. As Kogane put down dish after dish, with Shiro hovering by, his mouth watered from the sight of it. Of course he knew all of Keith’s favorite foods, they were the same person, after all.

He also wasn’t about to admit that for months he had subsisted on rations that had only fulfilled his daily caloric intake and nutrients needed. Somehow, he knew that Kogane knew this, and chose to remain quiet.

“Don’t touch anything.” Kogane warned Shiro, a wounded look upon his chiseled face. “I still haven’t gotten over what you did to our previous saucepan.” 

Keith laughed. “So Shiro’s still a terrible cook.”

“Of course,” His older self chuckled, scooting in his chair at the breakfast nook. 

(“The dining room is full right now.” Shiro explained in a rush. “We’re busy with some stuff.”) 

Keith held himself back from descending on the food like the ravenous wolf he felt he was. The dishes had been laid out family style, and so he knew he could take his time savoring each bite.

Kogane and Shiro spent their time eating and discussing what seemed like an increasingly complicated schedule. Flowers, they mentioned. Catering as well. 

Had he somehow wandered into the paladins in the midst of planning for a galactic event? Even then, he had another question to ask them, one that wasn’t fully explained when the rest of the group had gathered that afternoon.

Chewing thoughtfully, he set his fork down and cleared his throat. “I um… I have a question for you guys.” 

The two of them immediately stopped, a wave of expectation filling the atmosphere of the room. 

“What do you need to know?” Shiro asked, carefully.

Keith rubbed the back of his neck, nervous but somewhat dreading the answer. “What happened to the lions?” 

“Oh. That.” Kogane sighed with what seemed to be relief. “There was a final fight…” 

There was hesitation in his voice. “The lions chose to sacrifice themselves for the good of the universe.” 

“They… what?” He shook his head, disbelieving, yet the pieces were slowly coming together. “That’s why there was another Black Lion out in space… drifting, looking like that?”

He thought back to the lifeless lion, gutted, her maw ripped apart, her innards exposed and shattered. Keith thought of the low, keening sound that Red had made at the sight of her friend.

“It wasn’t easy.” Kogane murmured. “We didn’t want to, no one did… but the only other choice was unthinkable.”

“Then… Red…” 

“Red is gone, too.” Shiro placed a hand on Kogane’s shoulder. “Trust us when we say that this what they wanted.”

There would come a time, Keith had always understood, where he and the rest of the paladins would have to make decisions that they could never take back. Ones that could make or break the course of the fight, ones that they would maybe regret and mourn at the end of it all. Frankly, it was miraculous to him that at his current point in time, they had all managed to stay intact. 

Without Shiro, of course.

“I… I get it.” Keith finally said with an upward curve of his mouth, slow and sad. “I look at the both of you, and I know that while it was hard, you don’t regret what you did.”

“That’s Keith.” Shiro seemed to beam in response. “I never doubted that you would understand.”

He felt his face flush, his heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t used to the sort of smiles that Shiro could give anymore. Devastating ones. Poster worthy ones. Keith averted his eyes.

“Though the circumstances are weird, Keith… I’m glad you’re here with us.” Kogane reached across the table, hand lightly resting on top of his. Shiro followed suit, leaning in to hold both of their hands with his own.

“I-“ He stuttered, surprised by their openness. “I’m glad I could see the two of you. It gives me hope for the future.”

Keith looked around the table, at the two men before him, and felt the sure pulse of contentment in his chest.

* * *

As promised, Pidge and Hunk came bright and early, practically rolling him out of his bed. 

“We have so many things to ask you and try out.” Pidge’s eyes glimmered.

Everyone on the Voltron team has their bio-signatures scanned into the house’s security system, Shiro told him the night before. You and Kogane share the same one, of course, so feel free to let yourself in even if we’re not here tomorrow morning.

If he remembered correctly, the two of them were slated to head to the garrison on official business for the day.

So instead, Keith was left to his own defenses against Pidge, whose curiosity has only grown exponentially in the years he had missed.

“Why do I feel scared?” He turned to look at Hunk beside her, eyes pleading.

Hunk as he shrugged his shoulders apologetically with a look on his face that clearly read _Can’t help you, buddy._

“Come on. Lance is meeting us there.” Pidge took ahold of his arm.

“At least!” He exclaimed against her surprisingly firm grip, “Let me get fucking _dressed!_ ” 

As quickly as they had busted his door down, Hunk put his hands on her shoulders, ushering her out. “Sorry man! She’s just excited, there’s some people waiting to see you at the lab.” 

Disgruntled, he pulled on his clothes, freshly laundered to get the musty smell of the shack out of the fabric. He felt the shirt, softened from use, and his gloves, the old leather cracking at the seams.

_I guess my clothes will look like this one day too._

Living essentially as galactic fugitives in an interstellar war with only one change of clothing certainly did a number on his jacket and shoes, too. To imagine that Kogane had carried it all the way across space just to have them packed safely back into his old drawers warmed him, in a way.

 _“Are you ready yet? We have 72 tests planned for today!”_ Pidge hollered through the door. 

“Okay, _okay_!” Keith slammed their door open with a huff. “I’m ready, take me to torture... or whatever.” 

“Oh.” Was all Hunk could manage.

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“No- it’s just, I mean, it’s kind of funny. Seeing you like that.” He twiddled his fingers nervously, Pidge nodding beside him. “It’s been awhile since we’ve seen you like this.” 

Pidge reached upwards to give him a slap on the back, to which he sputtered in protest. She cackled, a tooth-bearing grin on her face. “And you haven’t changed one bit!”

Abruptly, she pointed her index finger at his nose.

“It’s not torture.”

* * *

When they first arrived at the lab, only minutes away from Kogane and Shiro’s house, Keith was once again stunned by the structure standing before him. He had heard that the building was commissioned and planned by Pidge, of course. 

He didn’t expect it to be a ten storied building, all sleek architecture in glass and metal, bustling with scientists from the garrison. It was yet another whirlwind tour, a testament to what the paladins had done in the time that Keith had leapt from one dimension to the next.

His head spun from the amount of greetings from the employees he received, the quick retractions of, “Oh sorry, I know you don’t know me yet, but maybe you will in your future.” 

It seemed that the lab was very well informed of his current situation and the urgency at which they needed to create a feasible warp device that could take him back to his own dimension. Still, they gathered to give him excited hellos, poking and prodding him along the way. 

(“How is this not torture, Pidge.”)

The surprising saving grace in the situation was how adamantly Pidge tugged on his hand, dragging him through the small crowd that had formed in the hallways. At the very end, there was an elevator, built specifically to reach her personal lab at the highest floor.

He stepped in, finding that the elevator shaft was made of glass, giving a brilliant view of the surrounding city in the bright morning sun.

Beside him, Hunk coughed. “I’m uh- I’m sure you’re wondering what that was about.”

Keith tilted his head, watching the cars speed along the streets below. “I guess? They all said hi but wouldn’t tell me how I knew them.”

“Right.” Pidge inserted herself into the conversation. “We’ve determined that it is dangerous to let you know about the series of events that lead us to this timeline, given that it could collapse the very series of events that could lead to our present time. We know your timeline won’t affect ours, but we don’t want to hurt yours, either. Still, we know it’s inevitable that you’ll pick up on the current situation, so we’ll give you as minimal information you may need to function while existing in our dimension.”

“Basically? We’re going to try to let you know what you need to know, but not how we got there. Sort of like telling you the ending to a story, but not the beginning or the end.” Hunk rambled until the elevator dinged, announcing that they had reached the tenth floor. “Sorry for the spoilers, Keith.” 

“No offense taken.” He answered dryly. 

If Keith were to be honest, it gave him a certain amount of hope, knowing that there was a universe where no one died. That there was a chance that if they worked hard enough and played their cards right, they would win the war.

Shiro would finally get to come home. 

Keith would have a place he could call home, a spot for himself that he could go back to. It was with Shiro, and he knew that he would no longer have to fear the possibility of losing him ever again. 

If he had to know the spoilers of his own life, he wouldn’t mind taking these one.

The doors slid open to Pidge’s lab. If there was one thing she couldn’t change, it had to be her dislike of cleaning up. Parts were strewn all across the floor sectioned off into piles for no discernible reason. A macabre assortment of half finished robots, their torsos missing limbs or their heads half assembled, lined the walls. At the very back of the lab was a large desk and computer, likely to act like an office space for the tiny mad scientist.

The people that were waiting as Hunk has mentioned back at the house, were none other than Matt Holt sitting at the desk, and Allura on a giant video screen, currently engaged in conversation with Lance.

“Matt…?” Keith gasped. The man before him had also changed, his hair in a shaggy ponytail, a scar scoring his cheek.

He thought of Matt, how the last time he had seen him, he was not that much taller than even Keith was. The glasses that his sister wore for the majority of their time in space, would frame the excited gleam in his eye as he discussed the upcoming plans for Kerberos alongside Shiro and Professor Holt. 

The launchpad was the last time he has seen Matt, as he held back tears while watching Shiro ascend into space. He had barely noticed a frail-looking girl back then, and had missed that though her mother held her close, their faces tear stained, the girl’s eyes were filled with determination.

“Hey, Keith! You’re just as small as they said you were.” Matt rounded the desk and pulled him into a hug.

“You’re here,” Keith stammered as they pulled away. “Pidge found you.”

“She sure did,” He said, the pride obvious in his voice. “Dad too. The Holts are all back together.”

“Good job, Pidge.” His throat tightening as he looked back at her, his voice warbling. “I know this happened years ago for you, but to me-“

“Yeah, yeah.” Pidge said, trying to brush it off but failing. There was a wet sheen that rimmed her eyes, but he knew she would refuse to let them fall. “Thanks though, Keith. It means a lot.”

“Keith.” He heard another voice, lilting in astonishment.

When he turned to face the Princess, he wasn’t expecting to see her face, so full of joy at the sight of him.

Since his last encounter with her, frankly, he wasn’t expecting anything from her at all. Yet he bit his tongue, held back because he knew that the Allura before him didn’t deserve any of it. 

“It really is you!” She exclaimed, delighted, her eyes practically shining like stars. “I haven’t seen you like this in so long… Oh Keith, I’d like to see you right away.” 

That, he didn’t expect either.

“Lance, I’ll just have to come early.” The pace of her speech increasing, the gears cranking in her brain visible to all that were in the room. “I’ll tell Coran to arrange for my advisors to take on their duties a week ahead, we were already planning on asking them to do so for the wedding.” 

A _wedding?_

“Allura, you can’t just do that.” Lance sputtered, “You’re the Queen of Altea, are you sure they’d be fine with you just- just warping off to Earth like that?” 

The _Queen?_ Of _Altea?_

From the corner of his eye, he could see the way that Pidge and Hunk watched him take in all the new information with wariness. Beside them, Matt simply shook his head, as if trying to wash his hands of the mess.

“I’m calling Romelle and telling her to pack.”

The video chat ended before Lance could give out another shriek in horror.

Keith slumped against the desk, running a hand through his hair. “Who’s Romelle? Wait, let me guess. I’ll meet her when she gets here, but I won’t be able to know how we met her.”

He watched four nods in the room. 

“And… Altea is back. Allura is now queen.”

Another four nods.

“And she’s coming for her wedding. With Lance.”

They collectively froze, Lance burning bright red before exploding, pointing a shaking, accusatory finger at Keith, “Wait- why do you think _Allura and I_ are getting married?! Sure, we’re dating, but the wedding- that’s _you and Shiro-”_

Lance stilled, hand dropping to his side as dread filled his face.

Keith was never one to understand the idea of fainting from shock, but he would be hard pressed to deny that something happened to him at that very moment. The room began to spin and he clutched at his throat, unable to breathe.

With ears ringing, distantly, Keith could hear murmuring. _“Don’t tell me he didn’t know.”_

_“I don’t know. Maybe he really didn’t.”_

_“How is that even possible? I mean, the two have been- It’s been like this forever.”_

_“But we don’t know.”_

_“Know what?”_

_“When he knew for sure. When Shiro knew for sure.”_

_“Fuck-”_

_“Keith…”_

_“Keith.”_

“Keith.” 

He shuddered, finally taking in lungfuls of air. He gripped the side of the desk, willing his arm to hold him up like a _proper arm should_. 

“I have to go.” Keith uttered, as the four of them crowded around him. 

“What do you mean, Keith? Go where?” Lance questioned.

“I don’t know.” He answered, forcefully this time. “I just have to go.”

“We can’t just-” Hunk began.

“No. Let him.” Pidge interrupted. All eyes turned to her. “He should go back home today. We’ll do our tests tomorrow if he’s up for it.”

With that, as if moving with a will of their own, Keith found himself striding out of the lab and back towards the elevators.

Faintly, he could hear her say,

“He’ll see it for himself. Then, he’ll have to decide.”

* * *

When he burst through the front door, the house was empty and quiet.

One by one, the light sensors activating to his presence, inviting him further into the home. 

Keith’s mind reeled as he looked. _Really_ looked at the house for the first time. It made perfect sense, and he had refused to see it.

The spacious master bedroom that was larger than the rest of the guest bedrooms, the two toothbrushes he had found on the double sink counters. Towels laid side by side. 

The way the two looked at each other as they sipped their coffee.

Was this really what was in store for his future? 

But did he really feel that way towards Shiro? 

Shiro, his brother, his mentor, the leader of Voltron and the man that had never once given up on him. Keith understood that oftentimes, his admiration towards Shiro was at the precipice of hero worship. Yet he understood his weaknesses, his flaws. He hoped, above all else, he could protect Shiro from the things that still haunted him. 

But that wasn’t love, was it?

He rounded the corner and entered the dining room, the very one that he was told he should avoid by the sheer amount of mess, and the situation was laid bare in front of him.

They were telling the truth. It was a bomb had been set off, if the bomb was filled with various swatches of fabrics, vision boards tacked with ideas for a wedding arch, reception decorations, flowers, party favors for the guests. In Hunk’s own handwriting was a scrawl of various dishes he could prepare for the alien diplomats that would be traveling all over the galaxy for the wedding.

He carded through the sample wedding invitations, getting Xs and Os on each one in both his and Shiro’s handwriting before finding the final one that they both approved on. The very same marks were on nearly every piece of paper related to their plans for the wedding. It seemed that the two of them were planning each step of the way together. 

It was certainly a galactic event. He was as right as he was painfully wrong.

* * *

When Kogane found him, late in the afternoon, the sun was heavy and threatening to set into the west. Keith had been lying very still on the living room couch, eyes fixed on a picture frame of himself with Shiro, laughing in a rare, candid photo.

“Hey,” He called out, as softly as he could manage. Still, Keith flinched at the sound of his voice, turning wildly until he realized that it was Kogane.

“Want to go on the balcony and have a drink?”

Keith watched as the vision of his older self pulled a pitcher of lemonade, the delicate glass structure filled with ice cubes and lemon slices. Kogane poured two glassfulls before placing a red straw straw and black one into each glass. Both of their drinks in his hands, he quirked his head towards the stairs, bidding him to follow.

They settled against the balcony rail, a cool, spring breeze in the air. The two of them watched as it rustled the treetops, the setting sun streaking the sky with purples as deep as a bruise.

Keith pushed the straw around with his index finger, the ice cubes clinking gently against the sweating glass. The nagging, insistent thought had now been brought to the surface from their companionable silence, ready to burst like a bubble. 

“I um… I didn’t mean to interrupt your wedding photos with Shiro.” 

It was almost imperceptible, but it was hard to hide your own nervous ticks from yourself. Keith could hear his breath halt, freezing in his chest. Then a controlled release of breath, entirely likely a habit formed with meditative advice from Shiro. 

“So you figured it out, huh?” There was a crooked smile on his lips. Kogane took a sip from his drink before setting it back onto the end table. 

Keith returned the smile, hesitantly. “I walked into the dining room, and it was like your wedding plans exploded in there.”

“-And Allura might have let it slip,” Keith hastily tacked on, not sure if he should be outing the Queen of what was now an entire planet.

His gaze fell on the simple, silver band on Kogane’s ring finger. He watched himself laugh. 

“I guess it’s just as bad as we think it looks.” Kogane leans closer, propping his arm up on the lounge chair. “You don’t have to apologize, though. Like I said, we weren’t trying to hide it from you. We just weren’t sure of what to say and how to say it.”

He felt the way his jaw locked, molded by cement and unable to budge. Still, he knew, he had to get the words out.

“I mean… It’s a bit surprising to me too... me with Shiro, huh?” Keith stammered, bright red. “Or I guess, _you_ with Shiro.” 

Kogane’s face was purposely emotionless. He could tell it was put on. It was his own face, afterall.

“What do you mean by that?” His gaze steady on Keith.

“I just…” He said a little shakily. “I never saw Shiro like that. He’s-“

“Like a brother to me.” Kogane finished, his voice quiet. 

“R-Right.”

“I don’t know anything about you, Keith.” He continued, measured. “But for me, it was always just an excuse.”

Kogane picked up his drink once again, resting it in his hands as he looked out into the dusk, night approaching rapidly. Below, Kosmo was running cheerful circles along the length of the backyard.

“I didn’t realize it until…” He stopped himself, clearly trying to form the right words. “Let’s just say, something happens and it dawns on me. I refused to let that emotion go from that moment on.”

“But how could you be so sure?” The perspiration on the glass now chilling his fingers to the bone, but he found himself unable to put the glass down. “That what you feel isn’t just-” 

“Friendship?” Kogane cut in. “Duty for someone that we owe so much to?”

He turns to Keith then, purple eyes shining like gemstones in the dark. He had never been affronted by that very look, the full extent of his determination pressing down him. Keith could understand now why people sometimes feared the way he glared.

“I realized that I always loved Shiro. I can’t even pinpoint when it began, but I knew it was the truth.” Kogane continued to stare, as if his very gaze could pierce straight through him. “I don’t know if that’s the case in your dimension, but it is the truth for mine.”

Strangely, a smile formed on his mouth, though with upturned, saddened eyebrows. “I’m not going to tell you how to feel, Keith. I can only tell you what I know myself. I hope you understand.”

Of course he understood. He understood it all too well.

“Yeah… I get it.” Keith replied, somewhat unsteadily. “Listen- this was a lot to take in.” 

He raised the glass in thanks, taking a few sips. It was sour, in just the way he liked it, the sugar not nearly as overpowering as the powdered stuff he remembered buying in the store. Just like everything else in this home, in this universe- 

It was perfect. 

“I’m going back to my room.” Keith told him, as if in retreat. “Let me know when dinner’s ready.”

But Kogane had nothing to spare him. 

“You’ll have to decide for yourself.” He told him in parting.

Keith tried. As he lay there, surrounded by the downy soft comforter that Shiro had handed him straight out of the dryer.

He thought of Shiro. 

He tried to decide. 

In the end, there was only one resounding notion in his mind, and it was one that he feared.

The man before him, the person he thought he knew as his future self, seemed so absolutely sure that he was in love. 

In love with Shiro, someone he couldn’t even bring himself to think of in any manner but his mentor, his best friend. Tried as he did, the idea of it only made him more confused. His skin ignited with an itch that seemed deeper than the surface, just out of reach, no matter how hard he scratched. 

If Kogane was so sure- 

Then the beautiful, picturesque future Keith envisioned here in this universe could only fall apart in his hands. 

There was no guarantee, knowing now that there could be such wildly different variables so close to him, that such a fate was even possible for himself, for the paladins.

It was then that the thought fully dawned on him, eclipsing everything else in its wake. If such a universe existed, there was no reason for his own to follow the same exact path. Alternate realities were as such- Alternate. Different.

For all he knew, he would never find his Shiro.

He could be gone forever. 

There could be no revived Altea, no respite from the war. No discovery of the Holts’ whereabouts. They could die out there, a simple blip on the grand radar that was the Galra Empire’s bloodlust and need for conquest.

He was a fool for expecting anything at all.

Like a man that had only surfaced from the bottom of the lake to feel the warmth of sunshine against his skin for one last time, he sank back into the water. 

The heavy stone of terror encircled his feet once again, and he let it drag him down where he belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two - In which Keith is a complete and utter DUMMY.
> 
> We'll have some interesting events occur in the next chapter... Thank you for reading and I'll see you all soon! 
> 
> Please check out all the art, created by the lovely Prosaicwonder on their twitter!
> 
> twitter.com/prosaicwonder/status/1208793123167576064?s=20


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